Winners of Detroit mayoral primary may not be determined for days after election

Detroit voters on Aug. 6 will narrow a wide field of mayoral candidates down to two.MLive file photo

DETROIT, MI -- If enough write-in votes are cast Tuesday, it could be days before Detroiters know which two mayoral candidates will move on to the November election, a state elections official said Wednesday.

There are 14 mayoral candidates on the Aug. 6 primary ballot, plus two write-in candidates with similar names.

The top two vote getters will move on to the Nov. 5 ballot.

Write-in votes in which an oval beside the written name isn't filled won't be counted. And write-in votes for candidates who have not filed declarations of intent with the city clerk's office won't be counted.

"There will be misspellings, correct spellings, and other name variations," said Michigan Elections Director Chris Thomas.

He said precinct workers Tuesday night will record the different variations of names entered onto ballots.

"They do not attempt in the precinct to aggregate those for any one candidate," Thomas said. "All they're doing is recording what they see."

Then the Wayne County Board of Canvassers, which is scheduled to meet the next day, will decide which name variations will count for which candidates before staffers tally write-in votes from each precinct.

"That will take a number of days for them to go through 600 different precincts," Thomas said.

There's also the possibility that a candidate requests a recount.

Thomas said he's met with the city clerk and county clerk and doesn't expect the state to be directly involved in the process.

The write-in process has become a major issue because Mike Duggan, a former Wayne County Prosecutor and former Detroit Medical Center CEO, was ordered off the ballot because he filed his petition signatures too early.

Thomas said the name similarity will be an issue as votes are counted.

"Those are going to play a large role in any determination of name variations going to the right candidate," he said.

He said court precedent allows for imperfect name spellings to count.

"If you can tell from circumstances surrounding the election that there's no doubt of the intention of this voter, then you give it to them," Thomas said. "I don't think it's a real tight standard."

But the board of canvassers will have to decide in a public meeting which candidates will receive votes for each spelling variation. And they'll have up to 14 days to complete the process.

Duggan believes he'll need between 15,000 and 20,000 votes to make the top two spots.

Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon, whose name is on the ballot, has been the front-running candidate.

Former state Rep. Lisa Howze, activist Tom Barrow, state Reps. Fred Durhal, Jr. and John Olumba, former top city attorney Krystal Crittendon and former Detroit schools superintendent John Telford are among the other candidates on the ballot.